The Isolation of Van Halen and Freddie Mercury

This may be one of the coolest live radio segments I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to. Audio engineer Christian Hand joined Mark Thompson on his morning radio show on LA’s 100.3 The Sound to dissect the Van Halen classic from their 1984 album “Hot For Teacher.” Hand brought in isolated tracks of the guitar, drums and vocal to share and reveal the pure raw talent and skill these musicians possess. After hearing this and other iconic rock songs for over the past 30-50 years, we sometimes take for granted the pure artistry, skill and genius it took for these individuals to collaborate and then present to the world something that millions upon millions have since enjoyed for decades.

While this segment would have stood on it’s own with just the Van Halen portion, Hand also brought in another isolated track which is the reason why I wanted to share it. This track literally, and I do mean literally, had my skin covered in goosebumps and tears welling up in my eyes while I listened for the first time. It is Freddie Mercury and David Bowie’s isolated vocal track from the song “Under Pressure” by Queen and Bowie. While Bowie is undeniably talented with his vocals, Mercury had arguably the greatest voice in not just rock n’ roll history, but in all of popular music. And when you listen to it here, the debate may be over. I may be hyping it up too much, but if I ever had to bet money, I’d lay it all on Mercury every time. Mercury’s voice, coupled with the emotional connection he brings to the lyric, is what I imagine angels to sound like when they laugh or cry.

I couldn’t embed the actual link, so I tweeted it out and embedded that tweet here for you to listen to. The “Under Pressure” section starts around the 17:00 minute mark, but the entire segment is absolutely worth the listen.

Matt Edwards is a filmmaker in his native Los Angeles. He is an alumnus of the 2011 Taliesin Nexus Filmmakers Workshop, a 2014 Liberty Lab Fellow and the current editor of SCC. Matt is also host of the The Rear View film podcast. Follow @TRVpodcast and @mattchrised on Twitter.